Our Senior of the Month for November 2017 is Bobby Swartz. He is a frequent visitor at the Senior Center and often enjoys lunch with us. Bob is one of 13 children born to his parents in Montana. He is registered as being born in Missoula but he was actually delivered with his 10-year-old sister serving as a midwife, cutting the cord and performing other required duties that she learned having helped deliver livestock on the ranch. Bob was born on May 27, 1939 and is midway in the succession of children. He and I laughed over the letter we recently saw in Dear Abby where a woman is complaining that her husband was sharing a sink with this sister! Bob’s family of 15 resided in a two-room house so sharing was the order of their lives. His mother was 12 when she married his father and she had her first child at 13. While his father died rather young, in his 60’s, his mother lived to be 100 years old!
Bob was married once and that marriage ended in divorce. Later his wife passed away with cancer. Bob says the treatments were what killed her. They have two children. They adopted a boy and two years later, became pregnant with a girl.
They owned a beauty shop in Santa Barbara and both Bob and his wife practiced cosmetology and styled hair. They employed 8 people and the business was a success. Bob spent 4 years in the Navy and can find his way around on the ocean, no matter where he is going. He has a lot of Scandinavian blood in him and is quite the seaman.
Bob says if you want to know his belief system, you should go to ECKANKAR.org. He says we are incarnated many times but only have one spiritual life. Bob’s sister, Dorothy, committed suicide and he knew immediately that she was instantly reborn into a baby in Canada. When one commits suicide, one’s reincarnation is immediate and worse than the incarnation you chose to leave! Interesting! Go to that website to expand your understanding.
When I asked him what his biggest obstacle was he told me that it was trying the make a marriage work and it just did not! Bob was confident that he could do anything he set his mind to and he was mightily confused when this just would not work out.
His biggest accomplishment was running a successful business and raising children until they were old enough to care for themselves. He was put out at 3 years of age and his older sister took him in a raised him.
His words of wisdom for all of us are, “The Golden Rule is real. We must do unto others what we would have done unto us. What we do to others will be done to us! It is all about balance!”
What Bob is looking forward to is a quiet departure with all debts paid!
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